We've recently had quite a few cockatiels surrendered to us, so if you've been thinking about adding one of these guys, now might be the time!

Cockatiels are often underrated as pets due to their smaller size. However, they can be very loving and fun companions!
If you think you might be interested in adding a cockatiel to your life, please fill out a Bird Wanted Questionnaire or stop by the Center during our open hours.

Sorry for the long time since the last post. We've been very busy at the Center! We've had several very sad cases of neglect and abuse that have taken up much of our time.

But, on to happier thoughts! Here is Cuervo, a sun conure that is up for adoption. He's about 10 years old and very tame and friendly. As you can see, he is also gorgeous! Cuervo's owners surrendered him because they moved into a condo and could not have him. Sun conures have a very loud call! But, if you live in a single-family dwelling and are looking to add some brightness to your day, Cuervo just might be your guy!

Burt is a goffin's cockatoo that was surrendered to CARE last year. Although his previous owners loved him, cockatoos do not make good pets for most people as they are wild animals that sometimes have trouble adapting to live in captivity. Realizing they couldn't provide Burt what he needed, they surrendered him to us.

Burt's luck took an amazing turn when he met and fell in love with the woman who eventually adopted him. Luckily for him, the feeling was mutual and she took him home to live out his days as a cherished member of her family.



Burt loves doing a somersaults! You can see that he does a little jump for joy at the end -- he is so proud of himself. This is something that Burt and his owner do to strengthen their bond and to keep his mind active.

It's so great to see these success stories!

Pepsi and Sprite are two quakers that were found as strays. We are working on socializing them with humans and getting them on a great diet. During the time they have been with us, they are starting to trust people more and will make great companions for whoever is lucky enough to adopt them!

Quakers are illegal in some states, as they can escape and be considered agricultural pests. Two of our volunteers unexpectedly ran into a feral flock of quakers while on vacation in Barcelona, Spain! A quick Internet search unfortunately shows that Spain is planning on offing these cute guys.

If you are interested in adopting Pepsi, Sprite, or any of the other parrots we have up for adoption, please fill out a Bird Wanted Questionnaire!

Have a great weekend!

Elvira and Elvis are cockatiels that were recently surrendered to CARE. They have not been handled in a long time, so we are working with them to show them that humans can be fun! They are both plucked a little bit, but their feathering has improved during the time they've been with us, and we believe that most of their feathers will grow back. Not that that's important, as some of the birds with the best personalities have feather destruction issues!

On a different topic, you may have seen a video of Snowball, the dancing cockatoo that has taken the Internet by storm! Snowball was surrendered to Birdlovers Only Rescue. CARE volunteers and Birdlovers Only Rescue volunteers have been working together over the past year to share knowledge and to help place birds into appropriate homes. Tonight, Snowball will be appearing on The Late Show with David Letterman! Best of luck to Irena and Snowball!

Sorry for not updating more frequently. We've been very busy! Lots of releases, a few adoptions. If you're looking to add a new bird to your household, we have many available, from tiny budgies to large macaws!

I was walking past our large aviary (cage donated by Cages by Design) where the budgies and a few other birds live. I saw this adorable budgie hanging out on the figure 8 rope swing, and I had to take a picture! Many birds love swings -- perhaps it triggers some kind of innate response due to being outside on branches moving in the wind?

Swinging can be great exercise for birds who enjoy it! Some birds will flap away on a swing as you give it a push -- much like a young child on a swing at the park. Of course, you have to make sure that you're not moving too quickly for the bird's comfort zone!

In less than two months, Hector (severe macaw) has gone from this: to this:
It might be a little difficult to see in this picture, but we wanted to emphasize his playfulness! He came to us a sad, scared macaw that didn't have perches or toys. He didn't know how to perch on perches in his new cage with us, or on people's arms. He'd just hang off of the side of his cage. And even though that's what he's doing in the above picture, he has learned how to perch and does it often!

His feathering has greatly improved from his new diet, and he is keeping his beak trim by playing with toys. Look at all of the wood that he has been chipping!
Here he is, eating some apple. I have not yet met a severe macaw that didn't love to eat red apples!

As we've come to get to know Hector over the past few months, his personality is really starting to shine through. Can you tell that I absolutely love this guy since I keep writing about him? Anyway, we are looking for that perfect forever home for him. He needs a lot of individual attention and an understanding owner since severe macaws tend to be beaky and difficult to live with. He hasn't had the best background, which will take patience and understanding to overcome. But, that special person will be rewarded with fierce loyalty and the devotion of an intelligent, humorous being that is searching for routine and stability in his life.

Rio is an approximately 22 year old Mexican Red Head Amazon that is looking for that perfect home. He was cagebound and not handled for most of his life. However, he has the stereotypical amazon love of life! He is very handleable (despite his past!) and craves human interaction. When I walk by his cage, he immediately starts pinning his eyes and begging for attention -- how can you resist!

Amazons are very intelligent. They thrive in a home that will work on keeping them mentally and physically stimulated! Because they have a tendency to become obese perch potatoes, it is important to feed them a healthy diet and incorporate a fun exercise program into their daily routine!

Stop by if you'd like to meet Rio or any of the other birds that we have up for adoption!

CARE still has quite a few lovebirds up for adoption. As I was walking past Robin's cage the other day, I noticed her hanging out in one if her swings. She is just so adorable! Robin can get a bit nippy, though, so we recommend that she go to a home without young children. She is a great toy player and needs to find a home with people who will frequently interact with her and give her lots of new toys! Connie and Scooter were surrendered to us in a cage that was caked with cigarette smoke. The cage they were in supposedly was white, but it looked yellow from years of smoke (needless to say, we could not adequately remove years of debris and had to throw away this cage). During the couple of weeks that they have been with us on an improved diet, more toys, and smoke-free environment, they have really blossomed! Connie is a bit plucked, but is looking so much better it's hard to believe she's the same bird! Connie and Scooter don't like to have a lot of human interaction at this point, so we're looking for a home that will move slowly with them and allow them to be birds -- after all, they have each other!
Curry is a young lovebird who is very friendly. Some well-meaning grandchildren bought him as a gift for their grandmother from a pet store. Unfortunately, she was afraid of him, and realizing that she couldn't provide him the home he deserved, she surrendered him to us. With the holiday season coming up, please reconsider buying live animals as pets. While it occasionally works out, so many times, it doesn't and the animal suffers. Instead, you can create a gift basket for that person with accessories for the animal and then go with them to a shelter to find an animal that chooses them. That way, everyone wins!!!

Frequent visitors to CARE might recognize the above bird as Butch, a fabulous blue and gold macaw. He stayed in our adoption program for over a year, looking for the right family. He once again proves that some things are worth waiting for, as he is in the perfect situation! Butch is very well loved and often goes to work with a member of his new family. He is opening up even more than he did at the Center and showing why he captured almost everyone's heart while he stayed with us.

His family also adopted Jade, a hybrid macaw that also was at our facility for a long time. Here are Jade and Butch, under close supervision. Jade's personality is more firey than Butch's, but his family is ready for the challenge and Jade's behavior is already improving with consistent, loving care. Look at Butch's long, beautiful tail! When he was surrendered to us, his tail was in very poor shape, but the wonderful care he's received since then has improved his feather quality!

Visitors to the Center may recognize this painting of Butch, as it hangs in our retail area:
Mary Hughes, an extremely talented artist and wonderful person, painted a portrait of Butch from pictures we sent to her. It's hard to believe, but the actual portrait is even more breathtaking than this picture of it! Mary is able to capture amazing detail and somehow the personality of the bird she's painting.

If you're looking for a gift for an animal-loving person in your life -- or just want to commemorate your own animals -- visit Mary's website and see what she can do! The prices are ridiculously reasonable and you'll cherish the resulting painting for generations!!! Stop by to see the painting if you'd like to see the work up close.

This is Ben, an 8 year old male umbrella cockatoo that was surrendered to us last month. He is a casualty of divorce.

Ben is tame and handleable and so far has not shown preference for either males or females.

He is a great toy player and talks and sings to keep himself occupied.

If you are interested in adopting a cockatoo, we recommend that you go to www.mytoos.com and read their website!

CARE will once again be appearing at Rainforest Night at the Domes on Friday, October 12. Please see the link for more information!

In addition, representatives from CARE will be appearing on Fox 6 Milwaukee at 8 am on Tuesday, October9, from the Domes and on Telemundo on Wednesday, October 10 (with translators, of course!)

We really hope to see you there and will have more information about this on the blog next week.

The macaw in the above picture is Jenny, a young B&G macaw that has already been in several homes. She is very intelligent and playful, and would love to find a forever home. If you think that may be you, please visit our website and fill out a Bird Wanted Questionnaire!

Here is a video of some of the finches that we have up for adoption. In the beginning, you hear many of the sounds of other birds in the aviary, but towards the end, you can hear the delightful beeping of these finches.

UPDATE: Millie and Cleo have been adopted, and are in their new home! We love happy endings here!

This next post may seem a little strange since we are a nonprofit and exist thanks to your donations and support. Why would we be promoting another charity in need? Read on...

While parrot rescues such as ours play an important role, it's a role that we wish we didn't need to play. Parrots do not make good pets. They are wild animals, and not well-suited to living in captivity. Very few homes are willing/able to provide the high quality lifelong care these sentient beings require. We see the results every day: parrots that scream, bite, pluck, mutilate, etc. Even with the best possible captive care, some parrots will develop these behavior issues.

That being said, we are realistic. The parrot trade is unlikely to go away anytime soon. CARE, and other reputable rescues, exist to help parrots find new homes, and to educate people about how to provide their bird the best home possible.

But we think it's also important to support organizations that are working to save these majestic creatures in the wild. The Indonesian Parrot Project is one such organization. In a nutshell, they work with former bird-trappers to provide them with alternative means of income. They also work to rehabilitate and release parrots that have been recently captured back into the wild. Please check out their website for more detailed information!

They also sell Molucca nuts, which provides jobs for people who otherwise might be trapping parrots, and helps support their mission. One of our volunteers has been buying these for her parrots, and they love these special treats, even though her parrots are native to Africa and South America; not Indonesia!

Thank you for reading, and once again, thanks for all of your support of CARE over the years. We've helped over a thousand birds find new homes over the years, and we couldn't have done it without you!

This past weekend, we had 23 birds surrendered to us, and an additional 13 so far this week, with more scheduled. 17 of those were zebra finches, which means that we now have 28 zebra finches up for adoption. If you have been considering adding some of these charming little beepers to your life, you could not find a better time than now!

If you are experiencing behavior problems with your parrot and are considering surrendering him or her, please contact us about a behavioral consultation. We would much rather work with you to help you keep your bird. Unfortunately, the avian community is reaching a point where there are so many unwanted parrots and not enough qualified homes available. And with the long life spans of these wild animals, things are only going to get worse.

Millie and Cleo have now been happily living together for over a month. They are starting to play a lot more and come to the front of the cage for attention from passing humans. They are not yet to the playfulness level of our naked pair of white-eyed and mitred conures (Sasha and Kellie), but we're hoping that they get there!

Millie and Cleo are looking for the home that will just allow them to be birds. A home where they can have a huge cage to play in and around, lots of toys, and good nutrition. They like to have some verbal human interaction, but not so much physical human interaction -- they have each other for that!

This is related to neither parrots, nor our Center, but it is bird-related, and it made me laugh, so I'm posting it!

Here is a link to an article about a thieving seagull in Great Britain.

We wish everyone a fantastic weekend and maybe we'll see you at the Center on Saturday!

Lucky is an approximately 13 year old Moluccan Cockatoo. He is the adoptable bird that has been waiting the longest to find his new home -- over a year. He is plucked but his skin is in good condition, and he has shown feathering improvement in the time he has been with us. He prefers women and loves to show off to children. He is handlable and is happy to be on a stand where he can see you - he is not necessarily a velcro bird. He also loves to chew up wood toys. He has learned several tricks without any formal training schedule, and would do well in a home that works hard to stimulate him mentally and physically.

Cockatoos are very difficult birds to keep successfully in a home environment, and male Moluccans are among the very hardest to keep, which is one of the reasons he has been with us for so long. If you are considering adopting a cockatoo, please visit this site: www.mytoos.com and read everything in their files.

Please stop by the Center if you are interested in adopting Lucky, or any of the other birds that we have up for adoption!

Here is a picture of Hector taken last Saturday, along with a piece of wood. If you remember, Hector was surrendered to us with a severely overgrown beak. He did not have any toys or perches.


We have been working with Hector and arranging his environment to encourage perching and wood chewing. We are happy to report that he is more comfortable perching and has been destroying his wood toys!

Severe macaws are very challenging birds and we are looking for an experienced macaw owner for Hector. Since becoming more comfortable at the Center, along with the diet and exercise improvements we have made, he has started to let his spunky personality show.

Many people believe that severe macaws make easier pets than the larger macaws because of their size. This is not true! Severe macaws do not generally adapt well to living in captivity. They tend to be overbearing, opinionated, destructive, and loud. One of our volunteers has a severe macaw that goes through approximately a 2X4's worth of wood every two weeks. They tend to bond strongly to one person. They are extremely intelligent, which means that their owner has to work very hard to keep them mentally and physically stimulated.

Here is a video of Ditto, a B&G macaw that was surrendered to CARE recently. She has a wonderful personality! She loves to hide her head under her wing (as you can see in the video) and she'll often yell "peek-a-boo!" afterwards. Of course she wouldn't do that when I had the camera on her!

Ditto has already had several homes, including stints totalling about a year on consignment at a local pet store. It is very important that we find her a home where she can live out the rest of her days as a loved companion, with the routine and stability that helps parrots thrive.

We have many lovebirds currently up for adoption. Here are some of their pictures. Most of them are living in pairs, and we do not want to split up those pairs. The six pictured here are not hand tame at this point, but they are relatively friendly, great toy players, and love to come out of their cages and hang out on their favorite people. If you are interested in adding a lovebird to your home, please fill out a Bird Wanted Questionnaire, or stop by to meet these beauties!

We currently have quite a few finches available for adoption. Stop by if you'd like to see them!

In order: green singing finch, zebra finch, shafttail finches.


Finches can add a touch of the wild to your home, without requiring the hands-on attention of parrots! I haven't had time to look through this whole link, but here is some information about finches. The parts I read sounded correct, but please stop by if you have any questions!

Good news for Mac, the cockatiel that was recently surrendered to us with wounds -- he went to his new home yesterday!

We still have cockatiels up for adoption, though! This is Brandon, a cockatiel that was surrendered to us on September 1. He was dropped off at a pet store, who then brought him to us, so we don't have any information on his background. He is currently a bit nippy, but improving with daily handling.

And this is Hannah, a baby. Hannah is another cockatiel that hatched at the Domes. This should go without saying, but if anyone ever overhears someone saying they're releasing their bird or reptile at the Domes, please try to dissuade them. Many animals cannot survive in that environment because they don't recognize the food that's left out for the animals that are supposed to be there. Additionally, the resident cockatiels and budgies reproduce with the released birds that do survive, creating more unwanted parrots.

If you're thinking about adding a bird to your flock, please check out our list of available birds.

CARE appeared at the Wisconsin State Fair again this year! Every day some of the volunteers take birds down to the Fair. Lori also gives several presentations daily to educate the public on the challenges of keeping parrots and why they do not tend to make good pets for most people.

This also helps us to get our name out to more people, in the hopes that they will consider adoption when they are ready to add a parrot to their homes, and also to let people know there is a place where they can surrender their parrots instead of releasing them outside.

The parrots love going out and being the center of attention! We make sure to only take birds that thrive in these kinds of situations, and a volunteer is always ready to drive the bird back to the Center if they're feeling too uncomfortable. Below is a small sample of pictures of our time at the Fair.

We hope to see you down there next year!

Here's another picture of Robin, an adorable lovebird that is currently up for adoption. She seems to make more than her fair share of appearances on our blog because we always catch her doing adorable things! This bird is a fantastic toy player. She loves swings and bells! Robin can be a bit nippy, so we don't recommend her for a home with small children. However, she will make a fantastic companion for an understanding adult! For a list of birds up for adoption, click here.

It’s been a few weeks since we’ve posted an update about Mango (see here when she first came in and here a few days later). She has been in for several vet visits and procedures since then. We wanted to wait until we had a better idea of what’s going on, but we finally decided to do an update with what we know now and we’ll continue to update as things progress.

We did a biopsy on her mutilation site. We were very relieved to find out that it was not cancerous. However, the tumor is very bony, and, in consultation with our vet, have decided that the best course of action is to remove the tumor. Because of the nature of the tumor, this will be a difficult undertaking. In the pictures below (warning: rather graphic), you can see how much the tumor is raised from her chest.

Since this is a procedure that is done very rarely, our vet is in the process of consulting with other avian vets to find out what methods, if any, have been successful in the past.

In the meantime, Mango remains at our Center. She loves human attention and playing with her toys. Unfortunately, because of her mutilating, she needed to be collared. We just removed the collar again this morning, as we want her to be able to preen normally, and are monitoring her situation to make sure the mutilating does not do additional damage.

Everyone has fallen in love with Mango, and we are doing everything possible, as we do with all of our birds, to restore her to health.

Here are Lester (cockatiel) and Phyllis (budgie), two of our permanent residents. Lester was surrendered to us because his owner didn't want to deal with his problems anymore. You can't tell from this photo, but his chest is completely plucked. He has some sort of medical problem, but it's nothing that vet tests have been able to find. However, whenever we've tried having him live in an aviary with other cockatiels, they start ganging up on him and attack him. We assume he has some sort of illness that the other cockatiels can sense, and they try to drive him out of the flock so that he doesn't become a liability (these are still wild, prey animals).

And then Phyllis entered his life! This little budgie helps Lester out. They preen each other, and she follows him around, making sure that he eats, even on his roughest days. He is much happier since she entered his life; incredibly, he seems to be doing a lot better physically as well.

Here is Mac, a cockatiel that was recently surrendered to the Center. A kind-hearted couple noticed him at the Seven Mile Fair in a booth selling puppies. They purchased him and surrendered him to us. Mac is already doing a lot better in the past week. He has started to regrow some feathers, and is delighting the volunteers with his cheerful whistling!

Here he is on that first day. We had to towel him to check out his injuries and do our intake evaluation. He was very calm.

Here you can see an injury to his wing. We have no idea what caused this injury.

At the bottom of his wing, you can see the bloodstains. He has had some baths since then, and now his outside appearance is starting to match his beautiful personality!

Mac is not currently up for adoption, as he needs to recover a bit more.

If you are interested in adopting Mac (once he is available for adoption) or any other bird at our Center, please fill out a Bird Wanted Questionnaire.

What is Jill saying to her owner? Maybe she's telling him what fantastic companions cockatiels can be!

Jill and her mate, Jack, were surrendered to CARE a few months ago. They were a former breeding pair, and the breeder was going out of business due to allergies.

As a rescue, we do not place birds into situations where they might be bred, and when someone is looking to add another of the same type of bird to their flock, we work with them to find a same sex companion.

However, this situation was different. These birds were so incredibly bonded to each other. If they get more than 2 feet apart from each other, they start frantically chirping.

We found the perfect home for them, where they can get as little or as much human companionship as they want (and for ex-breeder birds, they really like humans!) where they are free to play with toys and will never reproduce again.

Cockatiels are really amazing birds. One of our boarders can whistle the entire Andy Griffith theme song. They can be taught tricks, and are basically a big parrot personality packed into a tiny body!

Unfortunately, they are often considered to be throwaway pets because of their relatively small price tag and their small body size. Or they are a starter parrot, and people trade them in for a larger bird down the road.

During the first six months of 2007, we had 46 cockatiels surrendered to us -- more than any other type of parrot. We currently have some very nice cockatiels up for adoption, if anyone is thinking of adding to their flock.